Tommy Lee Jones Hated Jim Carrey While Filming ‘Batman Forever’

Comic book fans surely remember the '90s. It was a strange time to be a superhero fan. A dark time. A time when Joel Schumacher was directing Batman movies and baffling the entire world. A decade before Christopher Nolan made 'Batman Begins,' Schumacher made 'Batman Forever,' which featured Jim Carrey as The Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. No one remembers either performance fondly, but it turns out that there's some pretty interesting stories regarding their casting. It turns out that Jones did not like Carrey. Like, at all.

Rumors of the two not getting along on set have always floated around, but in a recent interview with Howard Stern, Carrey talked very openly about what sounds like a fairly hostile working relationship. From the sound of things, Jones may have been a little threatened by Carrey's sudden rise into super-stardom:

I was really looking forward to working with Tommy, but he was a little crusty. I think he was just a little freaked out because 'Dumb and Dumber' came out on the same weekend as [his movie] 'Cobb,' and 'Cobb' was his big swing for the fences and that didn't work out and that freaked him out a bit.

If you want a specific example of a particularly sour moment between the two very different actors, Carrey has got you covered. Be warned -- this next paragraph feels like something straight out of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' Contain your squirming:

I walked into a restaurant the night before our big scene in The Riddler's lair and [Tommy was there]. I went up to say hi and the blood drained from his face, in such a way that I realized that I had become the face of his pain. He got up, kind of shaking, hugged me and said 'I hate you. I reallydon't like you.' And I was like 'Wow, ok. Well, what's going on man?' And he said, 'I cannot sanction your buffoonery.' He did not want to work with me.

Yikes. It's hard to imagine Carrey, who was still very new to Hollywood at the time, being able to shake off being put down that hard by such a respected veteran actor. The fact that they actually do share some kind of manic energy in their scenes now feels like a bit of a miracle. Heck, their mugging for the camera now makes even more sense ... they were trying to top each other at all times!

Listen to the whole interview for yourself below. In the meantime, you can check out Carrey in the upcoming 'Dumb and Dumber 2' and you can remember that Batman movies have come a long way by reminding yourself that 'Batman vs. Superman' is filming now.